Landing of unmanned aerial vehicles on transportation vehicles for transport

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9809305-B2
Application number	US-201514635743-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 2, 2015
Priority date	Mar 2, 2015
Publication date	Nov 7, 2017
Grant date	Nov 7, 2017

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicles (“UAVs”) which fly to destinations (e.g., for delivering items) may land on transportation vehicles (e.g., delivery trucks, etc.) for temporary transport. An agreement with the owner of the transportation vehicles (e.g., a shipping carrier) may be made for obtaining consent and determining compensation for landings, and the associated transportation vehicles that are available for landings may be identified by markers on the roof or other identification techniques. The routes of the transportation vehicles may be known and utilized to determine locations where UAVs will land on and take off from the transportation vehicles, and in cases of emergencies (e.g., due to low batteries, mechanical issues, etc.) the UAVs may land on the transportation vehicles for later retrieval.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer implemented method to temporarily transport an unmanned aerial vehicle (“UAV”) on a transportation vehicle, the method comprising:
under control of one or more computing systems configured with executable instructions, sending instructions to the UAV to begin flying toward a destination of the UAV;
evaluating known routes that a plurality of transportation vehicles are travelling along, wherein the evaluating of each Known route includes evaluating at least one of a timing factor or an energy savings factor for the travel of the UAV, which includes comparing an expected timeframe for the UAV to reach the destination using each known route to a required timeframe for the UAV to reach the destination, and the plurality of transportation vehicles includes at least a first transportation vehicle and a second transportation vehicle;
selecting the first transportation vehicle for the UAV to land on from the plurality of transportation vehicles based at least in part on the evaluation of the known route of the first transportation vehicle;
not selecting the second transportation vehicle from the plurality of transportation vehicles based at least in part on the evaluation of the known route of the second transportation vehicle;
sending instructions to the UAV to fly to a meeting location and to land on the first transportation vehicle for transport during a portion of the known route of the first transportation vehicle to bring the UAV to a departure location that is closer in distance than the meeting location to the destination of the UAV;
sending instructions to the UAV to take off from the first transportation vehicle at the departure location along the known route that the first transportation vehicle continues to travel along; and
sending instructions to the UAV to fly from the departure location toward the destination of the UAV.

2. The method of claim 1 , further including sending a notification indicating that an emergency landing of the UAV has occurred on the first transportation vehicle.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first transportation vehicle is at least one of a truck, an automobile, a train, an aircraft, or a watercraft and the known route of the first transportation vehicle is for transporting at least one of items or passengers.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein a first entity owns the UAV and a second entity that is different from the first entity owns the first transportation vehicle, and further including providing compensation to the second entity for the landing of the UAV on the first transportation vehicle.

5. A system for utilizing transportation vehicles for transport, the system comprising:
an unmanned aerial vehicle (“UAV”), including:
a propulsion system;
a power module for storing energy with a corresponding energy level, the power module connected to the propulsion system and configured to provide energy to the propulsion system to fly the UAV; and
a computing system, including:
a processor; and
a memory coupled to the processor and storing program instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to at least:
fly the UAV toward a travel destination for the UAV;
evaluate a known route for each of a plurality of transportation vehicles relative to the travel destination of the UAV, wherein the evaluating of each known route includes evaluating at least one of a timing factor or an energy savings factor for the travel of the UAV, which includes comparing an expected timeframe for the UAV to reach the travel destination using each known route to a required timeframe for the UAV to reach the travel destination, and the plurality of transportation vehicles includes at least a first transportation vehicle and a second transportation vehicle;
select the first transportation vehicle from the plurality of transportation vehicles for the UAV to land on to bring the UAV closer in distance to the travel destination based at least in part on the evaluation of the known route of the first transportation vehicle;
not select the second transportation vehicle from the plurality of transportation vehicles based at least in part on the evaluation of the known route of the second transportation vehicle;
fly the UAV to land on the first transportation vehicle that is traveling alone the respective known route for the first transportation vehicle; and
remain on the first transportation vehicle for a portion of the known route that will bring the UAV closer in distance to the travel destination of the UAV.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the UAV further includes a securing component to maintain the UAV on the first transportation vehicle while the first transportation vehicle is in motion.

7. The system of claim 5 , wherein the propulsion system of the UAV includes at least one propeller that is configured to generate electricity from an airflow around the first transportation vehicle while the first transportation vehicle is moving.

8. The system of claim 5 , wherein the first transportation vehicle further includes a charging component to re-charge the power module while the UAV is on the first transportation vehicle.

9. The system of claim 5 , wherein the program instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to fly the UAV to land on the first transportation vehicle, further cause the processor to at least:
determine that the energy level of the power module is below a threshold.

10. The system of claim 5 , wherein the UAV further comprises an imaging sensor configured to at least one of determine an identification of the first transportation vehicle or assist with landing the UAV on the first transportation vehicle.

11. The system of claim 5 , wherein the UAV further includes a navigation system configured to determine a location of the UAV as part of the flying of the UAV to land on the first transportation vehicle.

12. A computer implemented method, comprising:
under control of one or more computing systems configured with executable instructions, evaluating a route for each of a plurality of transportation vehicles relative to a travel destination of an unmanned aerial vehicle (“UAV”), wherein the evaluating of each route includes evaluating at least one of a timing factor or an energy savings factor for the travel of the UAV, which includes comparing an expected timeframe for the UAV to reach the destination using each known route to a required timeframe for the UAV to reach the destination, and the plurality of transportation vehicles includes at least a first transportation vehicle and a second transportation vehicle;
selecting the first transportation vehicle for the UAV to land on to bring the UAV closer in distance to the travel destination based at least in part on the evaluation of the route of the first transportation vehicle;
not selecting the second transportation vehicle based at least in part on the evaluation of the route of the second transportation vehicle;
selecting a meeting location that the UAV will fly to and land on the first transportation vehicle for transport during a portion of the route of the first transportation vehicle to bring the UAV closer in distance to the travel destination of the UAV; and
sending instructions to the UAV to fly to the meeting location and to land on the first transportation vehicle for transport during the portion of the known route of the first transportation vehicle.

13. The method of claim 12 , further including estimating a departure location where the UAV will depart from the first transportation vehicle and fly toward the travel destination.

14. The method of

Assignees

• Amazon Tech Inc

Inventors

• Buchmueller Daniel
• Green Scott A
• Kalyan Atishkumar
• Kimchi Gur

Classifications

• B64U2201/00

  UAVs characterised by their flight controls · CPC title

• B64U2201/104

  using satellite radio beacon positioning systems, e.g. GPS · CPC title

• G01C21/3423

  Multimodal routing · CPC title

• G06Q10/083

  Shipping · CPC title

• G01C21/343

  Calculating itineraries (travelling salesman problem G06Q10/04; optimisation of routes G06Q10/047) · CPC title